JHAH Prioritize Safety and Hold 7th Annual Patient Safety Symposium Virtually for the first time

DHAHRAN – On March 14 – 15, more than 1,500 healthcare professionals came together to share knowledge, improve patient safety and quality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and enhance their understanding of new developments in the world of patient safety and quality of care. JHAH’s annual symposium provided an opportunity for professionals to network with healthcare providers from across the Kingdom as well as Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The speakers at the symposium included in-Kingdom experts from organizations such as the Ministry of Defense, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal Hospital, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Johns Hopkins Medicine International, as well as U.S.-based Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The event was the 7th annual Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare Patient Safety Symposium, which from its inception has been held in coordination with the world-renowned Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. This year’s theme was ‘Maintaining Quality and Patient Safety during a Pandemic’.

The annual event is designed to bring together healthcare professionals at all levels to explore current priorities in patient safety and quality and to raise awareness of important patient safety and public health issues that influence practice. As the COVID-19 pandemic remains one of the biggest threats to patient safety the majority of this year’s agenda focused on managing and maintaining quality of care while adhering to strict new patient safety guidelines. 

After the symposium, attendees should be able to recognize the importance of maintaining vigilant during a pandemic, mastered techniques to contribute to a safety culture by engaging in teamwork and able to identify and apply evidence-based risk mitigation strategies that are effective during a pandemic.

The symposium, held virtually for the first time as a COVID-19 safety measure, included a poster session that displayed a wide range of studies and activities that have been or are currently being conducted at JHAH. The winning poster was the “Cost-effectiveness and outcomes of early or same-day discharge after elective percutaneous coronary intervention in the Heart and Vascular Institute at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare.”